Irwin on Retribution
by Nev
Summary: Irwin, Matilda, Escad and Danae's friendship as children, and how events led to Irwin's extreme anger and hatred towards the world of Fa-Dil and, more specifically, Escad. PG13 due to graphic violence.


**Irwin on Retribution**

A Seiken Densetsu Legend of Mana fan fiction by Nev - www.serenitygrotto.com

Seiken Densetsu Legend of Mana and all characters are copyright 1999-2000 Square Co., Ltd.

  
  
  
You do not know what I am. I hath not anger, hatred and loathing. I am anger, hatred and loathing.

The thick, cold demon blood that runs through my veins, black as the night, is as a river of hatred. A river of hatred to your stupidity, to the vanity and fear of humanity, flowing to the beat of my demon heart, a beat like the clock ticking down to the doom I will unleash upon you.

Do not to try to defeat me. If you knew how much I despised you then you would beat your self to a bloody death. The way you live, the way you love and strive and fight for yourself and those you love. Pathetic.

Anger me, I implore you, I will unleash punishment upon everything you know and love. I am a flame so intense your world will perish in me. Resist me, try to kill me, hate me back. I want you to.

Loathe me!  
I can provide your doom.  
Hate me,  
Find me, and walk to your deserved destruction.

-

"Come on, let's go!" Danae urged the other three children up as they scrambled on the orange fiery sand rocks of Gato's Grottos.  
"Don't let it get away!" She sprang athletically, pacing up the slope, keeping perfect balance on the rocks, her feline tail waving in the air behind her as she volted left and right from position to position. Escad clawed his way up a short way behind like a desperate spider trying to get out of a deep puddle, nowhere near as athletic or lithe as the cat girl, but driving himself up though shear determination not to be outdone by his friend and rival.  
"Try to keep up!" Danae mocked Escad, who went red in the face, scowled, his short temper being pushed. He stopped, flustered, to take a deep breath.  
"Just keep your eyes on the rabite." He blurted, too focused on climbing after Danae for wasting energy on a proper retort and the inevitable exchange of insults that would follow.  
Irwin came next; he would have powered up the rocks, using his strongly developed demon body to leap many steps at a time. Though only a child, Irwin was powerful. Strong, his muscles were capable of power beyond what was possible for a human child. He could uproot a small tree with his bare hands, when he lost his rage he would punch the rock walls of the Grotto. Cracks would appear on his dark, dry chamber walls, running across the smooth sandstone surface as a mark of the demon's temper. He was holding back today though, not dashing up past Danae and Escad.  
"Get a move on you two, the little fur ball is getting away!" Escad called down to them, relieving some of the frustration Danae's taunting had caused, then turning back to continue after the bouncing yellow beacon much further up the slope.  
Matilda came up last, a few paces behind Irwin. Irwin was holding back to help her. She was no athlete, no fighter, she could not keep up on her own, so Irwin was there for her. When the ground was too steep he would hoist her onto his back and leap up the rocks, making up ground on Danae and Escad, but they still lingered behind at Matilda's pace. She lost her footing as she slipped on a loose rock and fell into Irwin beside her. He caught her in his arms and steadied her, then grabbed her hand with his much larger, paw-like demon hand and started on after the other two.  
There was something of the four working their way up the side of the rocky face that afternoon, as the sun beat down on the canyon walls surrounding the Grotto, which echoed something of each of their beings. Danae racing at the front ahead of everyone else, taking the matter into her own hands but constantly looking back at her friends to check they were ok. Escad clambering on up determined to prove him self, not to be put down, determined to shine. Matilda at the back, struggling to keep up, but thankful she could enjoy herself with her three friends. And Irwin, silent, watching over them, restrained yet powerful.

-

You. I hate. I hate you more than the moon hates the sun. Do not think I will walk away in disgust as the Moon fades from the sunrise though. I will chase you as the Moon chases the sunset. Such a profound metaphor, a blood red sunset is for you. I long to see your blood run as the Sun's, seeping across the skyline.

There is a special place in my heart for you, my friend. I have dreamt of you. Dreamt of the fate I wish upon you, fate so horrible it cannot be granted by the Mana Goddess her self.

You have caused me pain. You have caused me tears of blood. You have hurt me, stabbed me in the back, broken me in two, cursed me, insulted me, rejected me, took what was precious from me. Thank you. You made me what I am.

-

"Damn, we lost it." Escad kicked some loose pebbles from ledge back down the slope they had climbed, they bounced and rolled down out of view.  
"If you two had been able to keep up." He glared at Irwin who stood beside Matilda sitting and resting on a smooth boulder. He found reassurance in placing blame, placing blame on anyone for what went wrong, as long as it were not him, as long as he was in the right, not at fault.  
"No tracks that I can find." Danae stated, turning from examining the dust that lay upon the rocky track, ignoring Escad's remarks upon Irwin and Matilda.  
"It could only have gone one of two way from here." Escad blurted, Danae checking herself not to point out he was stating the stupidly obvious.  
"Left or right." She chimed in.  
"Why do we have to catch it at any rate?" Matilda asked, still quite flustered from her exertions, the others were recovered and ready to chase the rabite to hell aand back again, but she was weary.  
"It's a yellow rabite, they're friendly most of the time, its not like it will hurt anyone, so we don't need to catch it to protect people..." she went on.  
"We don't want it to get lost up here Matilda!" Danae justified her making them rush after the creature as it had bounced up the rocky slope. How it had got to the Grottos in the first place was a mystery.  
"If it were to get lost up here, there is no grass here for it to eat, rabites need grass to live!"  
They had, of course, not scrambled up the rocks of the grotto to save the rabite, as much as they had to be with each other. That afternoon, as the wind whistled across the rock face warm and dry, and the waterfall of the Grotto crashed off in the far distance, they were there as four friends. Four friends undertaking an adventure, living to enjoy life with each other.

-

What is friendship to me? I have no friends.  
Except for us. We are friends, the four of us. What do I need from friends? What do I want?

Now, I want to destroy you all.  
Then I wanted support, I needed to be loved, maybe I have a black heart, but even I can see that.

But you. You, what was friendship to you? Someone to admire you, or else make admire you. Someone to tell you how great you are, someone to prove yourself to. You value status over friendship. You would, you DID sell out against your friends for self-gain. And I am the one who is supposed to be the demon.

-

"Ok, meet back here in half an hour, don't be late!" Escad poked at Danae as they parted. Danae and Matilda went right, Irwin and Escad left. Neither Irwin nor Escad were happy about this, but Danae had insisted that she needed some girl time with Matilda while they sought out the wondering rabite. Both Irwin an Escad sighed with relief when, after 3 minutes tracking along the narrow path in silence they reached a fork in the track split by large rock formations, and they had to separate.

"They both like you, you know?" Danae said chirpily with a spring in her step as she progressed alongside Matilda down the dusty track.  
"I have no idea what you mean..." Matilda looked away from her down the slope, failing miserably to disguise her embarrassment at the line of conversation, her cheeks ever so slightly blushing.  
"So, who do you like more?" Danae was not going to let it go. Matilda gave in some way.  
"They're both such dear friends, don't make me chose between." She stated with a hint of sorrow.  
"Oh no, you don't get off that easily. You have to chose one!" Danae was enjoying the game, though she would drop it well before she would risk hurting Matilda's feelings.  
"Irwin is just so cold, yet his heart is so warm, and Escad is so wonderful in everything he does, I love them both dearly Danae." Danae, sensing this was as far as she should press the matter, let go, and followed the line of conversation no further.

-

I have to hand it to you, you may not have the body of a demon, but you have the mind of one.

Don't think for a moment that you are smarter than I am. Don't think for a moment that you hate me more than I hate you. Do not think for a moment the thoughts of what you will do to me can compare to thoughts of what I shall bring upon you.

But... I have to hand it to you, that day you got the knife through my back and into my heart, and twisted it so very hard.

-

Irwin had covered a vast amount of ground after leaving Escad, using his demon strength to run along the winding track with great speed, keeping his eyes out for the rabite. He ran with the wind in the hair, on his own he felt truly alive, he could burn along the track like a raging demon, the wind whipping his hair around his small horns. He ran so hard so fast he came some way around the loop that the path formed, a loop that lead back to where he had separated from Escad at the fork, and he expected to meet Escad somewhere along the way at any moment. He cornered around the canyon wall and. Stopped.  
Blood. Flesh. Violence, wounds and struggle all lay before him. The defiled corpse of the helpless rabite hung limp in a puddle of dark blood right in the centre of the track. Its intestines were scattered over the rock face to one side, blood splashed in long whipping lines marking the angles at which the body had been slashed like a perverse work of art. The blood was slowly seeping into to stone and drying to a black crust at the edges on the warm surface. An expression of horror and pain, a scream of agony was etched on what little of the rabite's features Irwin could make out.  
Irwin felt nothing. He was a demon. He did not feel shocked, his visions of the underworld that burned themselves of the inside of his eyelids as he slept were far worse than this. He didn't feel sorrow for the rabite, that would not help the situation.  
Irwin thought that maybe some wild creature had attacked it, seen it as easy prey, then ran off as it had heard Irwin approaching.  
Curious, he headed towards the creature and lifted the bloody remnants of its carcass into his large, clawed hands. He looked at it with grim fascination, the now lifeless vessel he had seen bouncing ahead of him just a short while earlier. The blood ran all over his hands, some down his forearms as he lifted it slightly. He sniffed the corpse, his immortal demon soul curious at the way it was now so devoid of life.  
He heard footsteps approaching, around from the direction he was expecting Escad to arrive came Danae and Matilda, jogging at some speed and Escad a step behind. They stopped dead. Matilda gasped, Danae stared on in sock, Escad just looked on blank.  
"What have you down Irwin?" Danae asked, dumbfounded before the demon boy covered in blood, holding the mutilated carcass.  
"Why?" Was all that she could add, stuttering.  
Irwin just dropped the rabite's carcass back into the puddle of blood, his mind blank, no words to say. The limp body splashed the drying blood up, flecks splattering Matilda's face, and she broke into tears that had barely been held back till then. Escad stepped in. He took Matilda in his arms, and she wept into his chest. Escad held onto her, then looked on at Irwin. His face blank. His eyes gloating.

-

I will bring to you what you deserve. You deserve my utmost punishment.

Tell yourself I am evil, you believe I am. Stop trying to convince me I am evil, I know I am. I promise you this much, as a friend, I will pay you back in full for what you have given me. You created me, who I am if not what I am, your creation will destroy you. Destroy them. Destroy everything you have, everything I have.

I will destroy everything.

-

That night Irwin sat up on the rocks on the edge of the terrace, watching the waterfall, looking down at the Grotto. He looked up to the night sky, in the twinkling stars he saw Escad's eyes twinkling with mischief. He started to cry. Demons to not cry human tears, they cry tears of blood, the droplets ran down his cheeks and pattered onto the stones below. He swore he would tear down those stars, every last one, some day. He would defile the world as that rabite had been defiled he swore. He sensed someone approaching from behind, he readied to run, not sure what to expect, as he had not been down to the Grotto since Escad had taken Matilda down with Danae, fleeing Irwin as if he were a demon. He was a demon.  
Matilda came from the darkness that lingered around the edges of the terrace, and sat down beside him.  
"You didn't do it I know Irwin."  
"How do you know I didn't? I am a demon. Demon's destroy things." He spoke strongly through his tears.  
"You didn't." she said adamantly. She drew closer to him then rested her head on his giant, mighty shoulders. They looked up to the stars.  
"Beautiful, aren't they?" Matilda asked.  
"Yes." Irwin replied.


End file.
